There are a number of cleansing agents and detergents which are available for different cleansing purposes. Oftentimes, however, different cleansing agents or combinations of cleansing agents must be used to cleanse different surfaces. For example, while a laundry detergent for washing clothes and the like may have many of the same or similar active ingredients as a shampoo for cleansing and conditioning the hair of a user, the active ingredients must often be used in conjunction with different non-active ingredients or in different active amounts in order to adequately protect the surface being cleaned. In other words, washing clothes with shampoo will probably not clean the clothes just as washing hair with laundry detergent could deleteriously harm the hair or scalp.
Likewise, removing ink stains from various surfaces has traditionally been a problem throughout the printing industry. There are a number of conventional ink remover solutions or compositions, but many of these can be or are known to be corrosive to the skin or otherwise harmful to the user. Attempts to improve compositions which adequately remove ink from inanimate surfaces such as screens and hard surfaces can be found throughout the patent literature, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,424,001 and 5,464,555, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, very little research has been conducted to provide a cleansing composition which will effectively cleanse the surface of the skin of the user, and more particularly, has the ability to remove ink and other tough stains from the skin, without deleteriously harming or irritating the skin, a common problem were the user to employ these other ink removing compositions capable of removing such stains from other, less delicate surfaces. To the extent that any such ink-removing skin cleansing compositions have been developed, these skin cleansing compositions typically employ either only a solvent as the active agent for removing the ink, or only a bleaching agent (without a solvent) as the active agent for removing the ink, neither of which, by themselves, are particularly effective in removing the ink.
Skin cleansing compositions are well known in the art, and are typically used to cleanse the arms and hands of the user. Some skin cleansers, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,462, may be antimicrobial in nature and are used to effectively destroy bacteria and any other microorganisms which might be present on the user's arms or hands. However, the majority of skin cleansing compositions are simply employed to clean the arms and hands of the user, ridding the skin of various germs, dirt, greases, stains or other corrosive or toxic substances which might be present on the skin.
Unfortunately, at noted above, these skin cleansing compositions are not very effective in removing extremely tough stains like ink stains from the skin. Inks, particularly video jet ink or graphic ink, as used in the printing industry, are some of the toughest stains to remove from the skin. Presently, however, there is only one known skin cleansing composition which is capable of at least substantially removing ink stains and the like from skin. This skin cleansing composition is presently available from Stockhausen under the tradename Reduran. While the actual formulation of this product may be proprietary, it is known to comprise a reducing agent/bleach such as sodium hydrosulfite, a detergent/buffer/chelation agent such as sodium hexametaphosphate, polyethylene glycol, active cleansing agents such as cocamide DEA and cocamide MEA, kaolin, a reducing agent/solvent for dyes such as triethanolamine, a detergent/solvent/solubilizer for inks such as C12-18 Pareth 10, an abrasive such as silica filler, fragrance, and water. Other than a small amount of polyethylene glycol and water, there appears to be no solvent, e.g., alcohol, in this product.
While this composition has been effective in removing many types of inks from the skin of a user, it still has a few drawbacks. For example, a significant amount of fragrance is employed in the product in order to mask the generation of SO.sub.2 /SO.sub.3 created by the product. Furthermore, using the product gives a warming sensation to the hands. Such a warming sensation, while not necessarily significant to the ability of the product to cleanse the hands, often gives the user an insecure feeling of harm being done to the hands, e.g., a burning sensation or similar irritating sensation. Consequently, the need exists for a skin cleansing composition that will effectively remove ink stains from the hands and arms of the user without providing such a warming sensation.
The present invention differs greatly from the Reduran product. The present invention uses a percarbonate or other peroxide releasing compound, together with a substantial amount of an alkanol having from one to twelve carbon atoms, to remove ink from the hands and arms of a user. Percarbonate-based cleansing compositions are also well known in the art, but have heretofore not been used to remove ink from the skin. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,729, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, teaches a decontaminating composition for decontaminating hard surfaces, clothing and personnel that have been contaminated with corrosive and/or toxic substances. The decontaminating composition is derived from a water-soluble basic salt having hydrogen peroxide of crystallization, e.g., a percarbonate, an activator for hydrogen peroxide, e.g., clay, a positively-charged phase transfer agent, e.g., a phosphonium salt, and an aqueous solution comprised of a nonvolatile alcohol, namely a polyhydric alcohol, and a surface active agent such as a detergent or surfactant. Notably, this decontaminating composition uses a water-based solution and a separate activator for hydrogen peroxide to provide its decontaminating characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,238, also incorporated herein by reference, discloses a multipurpose cleaning agent which is practical for cleansing the face, the hair, of the body of the user, as well as for cleaning fruits and vegetables and any of a variety of household items. This cleaning agent is made from sodium alkyl sulfate, fatty acid coconut diethanolamide, citric acid, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid, citric acid soda, water, sodium polyoxyethylene alkyl ether sulfate, sodium carboxy methyl cellulose, sodium percarbonate, sodium tripoly phosphate, soda ash light, mirabilite, savinase 40T and celluzyme 0.7T. Again, this composition, while using a sodium percarbonate, does not include any significant or effective amounts of alcohol as a solvent. Rather, it relies on various bleaching agents to cleanse.
Other percarbonate-based cleansing compositions have been formulated for use as a laundry treatment product (U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,654), as a household detergent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,496), as an automatic dishwashing detergent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,781), or as a cleaner for cosmetic and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,761). None of these patents, however, include a percarbonate or other peroxide releasing agent and a low molecular weight aliphatic alcohol, namely, an alkanol, which together provide a skin cleansing composition capable of removing ink and other stains from the skin of a user.
Thus, the need exists for a skin cleansing composition containing a peroxide releasing agent, e.g., a percarbonate, and a lower molecular weight alcohol, e.g., an alkanol, which composition is suitably effective in cleansing the skin and, in particular, is effective in removing ink and other tough stains from the hands and arms of the user.